America's Health Rankings

APHA has long partnered with the United Health Foundation and the Partnership for Prevention to produce the longest running state-by-state analysis of our country’s health and the factors that affect it.

"America’s Health Rankings: A Call to Action for Individuals and their Communities" plays an important role in recognizing our successes and tracking emerging challenges as we strive to create the healthiest nation in one generation.

2016 report

This year’s report celebrated meaningful progress — including declines in smoking and preventable hospitalizations among Medicare beneficiaries and an increase in the number of insured Americans — but warned that rising cardiovascular and drug deaths and obesity areas of concern. The report also ranked Hawaii as the healthiest state and Missisippi as the least healthy.

Some key findings from across the U.S. include:

A reduction in the prevalence of smoking among adults. Since 1990, smoking among adults has decreased by 41 percent – including a 17 percent decrease in the last four years.

Preventable hospitalizations have declined by 35 percent over the past decade, and achieved a 13 percent decline in the past year alone.

In the past five years, the rate of uninsured Americans declined by 35 percent – from 16.2 percent to 10.6 percent, which is the lowest point in the report’s 27-year history.

The report also identifies challenges. These include a rise in cardiovascular deaths (from 250.8 to 251.7 deaths per 100,000 in the past year); a 9 percent jump in drug deaths over the past five years; and an increase in the premature death rate for the second year in a row.